November 17, 2008

Heinrich August Marschner's "Der Vampyr" opened the season of Teatro Comunale in Bologna last night: Roberto Abbado conducted -- quite splendidly, from what OC could judge listening to the broadcast in the cozy splendor of her home while sipping some chilled Henriot -- and Pier Luigi Pizzi directed the opera that for the first time in 180 years has been staged in Italy.

Taking part in the scary, hawt bloodsucking action a cast made up of Harry Peeters, Carmela Remigio, John Osborn and Detlef Roth that was massively applauded at the end by the opera gourmet down in Bologna -- a demonstration that a financial crisis doesn't mean one needs to dumb down the program to the usual big box office draws like Puccini. When you have an intelligent conductor and a talented cast, and you trust the audience, the success will come.

We're also happy to report that unlike their irresponsible colleagues at la Scala, Bologna unions -- worried as everybody is about imminent government cuts to arts budgets -- waited until the end of the show to mount two big billboards on stage, and, as the cast and conductor received their deserved share of applause, the two big billboards exposed on stage by the workers read "WE ARE NOT VAMPIRES". A classy way to make their voices heard , respectful of opera and of their audience. A lesson, really, for all of us who witness la Scala unions sterile, counterproductive temper tantrums.

August 12, 2008

Today's Corriere della Sera -- not online -- in a review under the headline "The Two Abbados Mesmerize Pesaro With Ermione" -- cheers Roberto Abbado's conducting of Rossini' Ermione at Rossini Opera Festival -- the awesome Pesaro musical institution -- the other night.

Conductor Roberto Abbado earns a "bravissimo" from Corriere's critic and his cousin Daniele Abbado (Claudio's son), the director, adds, in Corriere's words, "a pinch of madness" to the production. Ermione gets relocated to Weimar-era Berlin with a bonus -- a final "procession of masks, a chaotic, Dyonisian humanity". Propsicles to the lead, Sonia Ganassi, to Marianna Pizzolato and the unsinkable Gregory Kunde ("even if he has shown signs of fatigue towards the end", writes the paper).

Opera Chic -- a Rossini lover who could easily spend the rest of her life without going to see another Barbiere -- Marinuzzi's old veto still makes a lot of sense -- has a weakness for Rossini's opera seria, and it's really lame that such a genius of tragedy has been sentenced by Fate to be remembered as opera's silly funnyman -- it's a shame that many works, written in Italian, that gave scholars a better understanding of Rossini's opera seria achievements -- works, among others, by the essential Bruno Cagli and by Paolo Isotta -- have never been translated into English.

Anyway, patriotic as always, OC is happy to report that the USA answered to this Italian invasion of Rossini scholarship with an all-American heavy hitter -- thank heavens for our dear Uncle Philip Gossett aka Il Professore aka The Dark Knight Of The Critical Editions -- he's Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic, yo. His "Divas And Scholars" latest book is a constant -- as authoritative as it is massive -- presence on Opera Chic's desk, right next to her pile of magazines (the latest issues of Vogue Nippon and Russian Elle & vintage copies of Egoïste for reference), her framed portrait taken by Terry Richardson, her Pettinaroli personalized stationery and her MacBook Air.

The opera house wasn't sold out (due, maybe, to bad word of mouth on the omg toga-less staging omg) and defections at intermission were very few. And applause, at the end, by the part of the audience that loved the show was heartfelt and there was even a standing ovation (as documented in our picture below).

But how many of the elderly operagoers in the audience were audibly grumbling at intermission at the nice second-level café: our favorite, by a long shot, and we're sure Mr. Vick (and Monsieur Duchamp) would love this quote, was the elderly gentleman who complained about the Fascist-era staging by huffing that "E' come disegnare i baffi alla Gioconda", "It's like drawing a moustache over Mona Lisa's face".

Because Graham Vick is the same guy who in Salzburg, three years ago, decided to make Sarastro the bad guy in his Magic Flute, leaving audiences horrified and convincing the Festival glum d00dz to hire the harmless Pierre Audì for the 2006 Mozart Birthday party instead of Dangerous Graham, and more powah to Vick for that, he's someone who envisions the opera house as a place you go to have your sh^t f*cked up, not a place to go spend a happy evening between aperitivo and a nice dinner).

La Clemenza, of course, is an ode to a guy, Tito, who built a political career by slaughtering thousands of Jews, destroying the Temple, and coming back to Rome a hero, where an arch (that's unfortunately still standing) was built to honor his deed, an arch that carries gleeful basrelief of the plunder of Jerusalem and was in later centuries used by Popes as the appropriately ghoulish scene for the Roman Jews yearly pledge of submission to the Vatican.

It's not as crazy, then, that Vick chose to depict Tito not as enlightened leader but as slick-haired Duce, surrounded by sycophants in white ties and thuggish squadracce in black shirts and shiny boots, ready to graphically beat and kick the living cr4p out of randomly selected bystanders -- enjoy your Emperor's powah, bebbe.

What Vick is saying, in effect, is, if you're walking down the street and you see a little bug scampering
by, and you decide to crush the bug under your shoe, and in the end you change your mind and you don't crush it, does that make a tolerant, enlightened Emperor? Not really, because you simply avoided to crush a bug -- because Sesto, Vitellia, all the others, can not touch Tito, because he has all the power that they don't have any, even an attempted coup won't do the trick of changing the power balance.

Tito's choice not to kill them is in a way irrelevant, because they don't exist anyway, they're bugs (however pretty Sesto comes across to the obviously gay Tito imagined by Vick). But then this is a director who deals in paradox and it is not a very popular currency nowadays.

Vick's staging wasn't the only cool thing -- Roberto Abbado rawked teh haus. He, for the occasion, chose a heavily-HIP inspired
performance, a shallow orchestra pit and period instruments and
oldskool bows by the ultra-cool maestro archettaioEmilio Slaviero and created a nervous, unsettling Tito, with elegant shifts in tempi and an underlying sense of sneaky danger -- in short, the opposite of the deadly, boring Clemenzas of the ex-musicologists, ex-countertenors with a baton that make up the large part of the "baroque specialists" troops.

More tomorrow in Opera Chic's full review -- suffice to say for now that a DVD is in the works (there were HD camers everywhere), that the production will appear in Dario Argento's new film, now shooting in Turin, Giallo, that Sesto (Monica Bacelli, in a world-class performance) was so awesome that even Roberto Abbado put down his baton and started clapping his hands after a killer aria, and that Tito, our dear Giuseppe Filianoti, was in such bad shape that we are now officially very worried about his forthcoming Don Carlos at la Scala on December 7.

January 01, 2008

Barely awake after partyin' all nite & damaging a fine reserve of vintage bubbly, OC watched live on ZDF a sizable slice of Maestro Pretre's not-so-fresh Sachertorte, the New Year's Concert from Vienna (we love GP, he's like a kindly grandpappy, and he almost always moves us: not today, tho, too weak, too flat -- in the last few years other conductors such as Jansons and Mehta have rawked Strauss much MUCH harder). OC then tuned her big shiny plasma to RaiUno, that had decided instead to broadcast live from la Fenice in Venice the Italian version of Vienna's classic new year's extravaganza.

The first part of the concert (Luisa Miller: Sinfonia; I vespri siciliani: Le quattro stagioni
Inverno, Primavera, Estate, Autunno) has been ruthlessly killed by Rai's powahs because the Pope was simultaneously giving a ginormous speech in Rome and Italy's most popular channel was totally whalin' on that, because if you'd rather listen to an old cranky Italian (Verdi) than an old cranky German (the Pope) you'll make the Baby Jesus cry; after the Pope hath spawken, finally, they managed to beam, live, the images and sound from Venice for the second part of the concert: a mashup of Italian opera arias and the inevitable Va' Pensiero. (not exactly the happiest sound to welcome the new years, but whatevs).

Maestro Roberto Abbado -- who hadn't chosen personally the program for the second part of the concert but had to execute a RAI-made list of blockbuster tunes, as he managed to wisely let know to Corriere della Sera's a few days ago -- managed to make lemonade out of those state-TV lemons, showing us once again what a fine, fine, elegant, underrated conductor he really is.

The singers: a juicy Barbara Frittoli who flaunted some exquisite colors, a massive bewbétage and, we're frank because we *heart* her, a dangerously sagging neckline (at the very least, she needs to be lighted very differently; Dr. 90210 can come to the rescue too); il maestro Ferruccio Furlanetto who shook the Fenice's recently rebuilt walls with the raw powah of his bass-baritone; and Marcello Giordani's last-minute replacement, il signor Walter Fraccaro -- Alagna's doppelganger for Zeffirelli's unlucky Aida of December '06 at la Scala -- who was just happy that Alagna was nowhere to be seen. Sadly, Alagna would have totally eaten WF's lunch, and we're not sayin' much here, are we.

As we said above, Abbado's beautiful phrasing managed not to drown Va' Pensiero in the usual sea of corniness, kept Libiamo's band-like waves of sound within the limits of the acceptable, and even Aida's Marcia Trionfale (photo above) was elegantly shaped by the Milanese maestro. Who gets a bonus because he didn't show up, like many conductors lazily choose to do, in white tie for a morning concert. Avoiding the stuffy classic morning suit, he opted for a beautiful midnite blue suit with simple white shirt and pearl gray tie, an OC rating of A. Very nice also the natural gray of the maestro's hair.

Abbado's hand clasping Frittoli's for the post-concert applause:

New Year bonus for our readers: a closeup of la signora Frittoli's impressive cleavage. No n1pple slip, mebbe next year! Rawk on 2(.)(.)8

February 06, 2007

Among Milanese opera fans, the most popular game that does not involve drinking à la Quarters is "Who Would You Choose As Musical Director When In A Couple Years It Will Be Impossible To Keep Pretending That Barenboim's Part Time Job As Maestro Scaligero Is Enough For Such A Big Opera House" (long name, I know, funny Italians -- in the original language it's even longer).

Opera Chic has been subjected to it several unhappy times -- unhappy because it usually ends with bitter arguments, sneering comments, fist-fights, the occasional stabbing in the neck with a broken CD jewel case. And even now that she's temporarily back in the USA, OC hears the question a lot from friends: Who will replace Muti? The orchestra, after all, cannot remain without a Music Director forever.

Well, actually, part of the problem (of General Manager Stephane Lissner's problem) is that the orchestra (many professori, at least, if not all of them...it's far from a unanimous crowd, except when they fire a Music Director, as Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti know too well) like the present situation *a lot*: Daniel Barenboim flies-in every once in a while (3-4 times a year, not exactly the same as Muti's notorious military drills), dazzles everybody with his charm, as well as his almost scary genius and his super-stimulating ideas, leads them in super-charged performances that bring the house down, then races back to Malpensa Airport, never to be seen again for months. OC also hears that the famously snappy (during rehearsals, at least) Barenboim very cannily keeps his powders dry whenever he conducts here, never scolding, always suggesting, and heaping lots of praise; no wonder he's crazy-popular with the orchestra: he behaves like their dandy uncle who lives abroad & pops-in for Christmas with an armful of gifts -- or cigars, in Barenboim's case).

It is also true that sooner or later, reality will interfere with the orchestra's wishes, and Lissner will have to appoint a Music Director -- guest conductors and music directors and experiments playing for young young young baby-faced sweet exciting newcomer conductors like Harding and Dudamel only help up to a point. To keep the "La Scala sound" -- a beautiful, precise opera sound, with the Italian repertorio as king, but with the indispensable ability to shift to Wagner, Strauss, and the great symphonic masters -- you'll eventually need another Abbado, another Muti, is the general consesus here (well, Milan, actually...whatevs).

The sad fact is that Maestro Scaligero Barenboim, the natural, perfect candidate (unique background, huge charisma, interest in new music, unimpeachable taste, fantastic experience and ability in the German repertorio) just won't take a full time job as Music Director of La Scala, this is clear. At least for the foreseeable future.

Consider that to replace Muti after his always stormy but often awesome reign you need a rare mix of great talent, a huge international high profile, big brassy brass ballz and at least a tiny bit of those peeple $kill$ that Muti so proudly lacked. You don't really want to hire sonmeone who'll soon lock horns with the orchestra and the press, since the orchestra yields awesome veto power (as I said above, in early 2005 they effectively fired Muti the way they kicked poor Abbado out in 1986) and the press can really make a Music Director's life miserable (it didn't happen with Muti, ok ok, he enjoyed fawning reviews and lots of ink-stained love from the papers, but it doesn't mean the press will accept just anybody -- especially anybody with a lower profile and lower standing that Muti had in the mid-80s.)

Let us now try to handicap the race for the future leader of our beloved opera house, then:

OC's opinion: he's really really good, he'd make an excellent MD, he'd bring some seriously needed fresh air. But, who knows, he's from Milan, and studied in Milan and now seems ready and, to boot, he's probably the frontrunner... And we all know what often happens to frontrunners and to those who look so perfect for a job...

The buzz: he did all the homework, he's got the credentials, the audience really likes him. But some see him as not being either old enough or exciting enough to get the job -- we often hear that he'd be perfect if only he were even more experienced (read: older) or more exciting. Mark my words: if you cannot have someone as awesome as Muti (that'd be Barenboim), exciting is what you need.

~o~ ROBERTO ABBADO (aka THE UNDERRATED ONE) ~o~

Not all Milanese music fans root for Gatti: many are happy to endorse & support Roberto Abbado, Claudio's nephew, an elegant, sophisticated international maestro who knows La Scala well and who, last year, conducted a crystal-clear Lucia di Lammermoor -- seldom being on the verge of a nervous breakdown has sounded -- or looked -- more fabulous, largely thanks to Abbado.

The buzz: "But his uncle Claudio did this", "But his uncle did that", "He's not his uncle". If he doesn't get the job for this reason, some people seriously need to grow the hell up, OC thinks.

~o~ RICCARDO CHAILLY (aka THE PERENNIAL CANDIDATE) ~o~

Riccardo Chailly still has many fans (even if they're not as vocal), despite a too-muscular Rigoletto last year and a correct, but uninspiring, Aida last December. Alagna ruined his standing -- when he pulled out of Aida and then tried to get back in when he got scared of the consequences, we heard from Lissner, from Zeffirelli, even from the half-naked (bless his shiny butt) Roberto Bollé. Chailly waited for two months before speaking up. It looked like Lissner was running the show 100% and Chailly's low profile was seen as either a sign of weakness, or of being kept out of the loop. Even the biggest Muti haters acknowledge that Muti would not have taken the hit of the Alagna tantrum silently, leaving to Lissner the role of the only enforcer in the house. Say what you want about Muti (that's what they do here, anyway) but when the orchestra went suddendly on strike right before a performance in the mid-90s, he barged ahead and turned Traviata into a piano recital (himself at the piano), and went ahead with the singers and the show went on (as the proverb says).

OC's opinion: Chailly's got a massive international experience and the right profile. Excellent conductor, he'd be an excellent choice. Aida damaged him, though.

The buzz:he has a good relationship with Lissner, the orchestra doesn't mind him. But the question remains: why didn't they offer him the job last year, then, and went looking for Barenboim's weird special-guest-with-privileges role?

OC's opinion:he's cool, really cool, a thinker and a sweet man who'd never alienate the orchestra. OC loves his ethereal sound. The pros: he's a Giulini clone, and you couldn't clone a greater maestro. The cons: his greatest asset is also an albatross around his neck. He's no Giulini; nobody is, nor will ever be.

The buzz:he's BEYOND a dark horse, BUT he'd be the first non-European Musical Director in an opera house where visitors from Asia have an ever-growing presence in the audience, and an increasing financial weight, and has a very good American profile. He'd be a very exciting choice, and -- as we said above -- if you cannot have someone as awesome as Muti (that'd be Barenboim), exciting is what you need.